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Former Virginia Govs. George Allen and Timothy Kaine are tied in the race for retiring Democratic Sen. James Webb’s seat. Both are polling at 46 percent among registered Virginia voters 18 months before the election, The Washington Post reported. The Democratic Kaine shows strength in the powerful and populated Northern Virginia, while the Republican Allen polls well in the rest of the state. Both must overcome negatives: Kaine for his close association with President Barack Obama’s policies as head of the Democratic National Committee and Allen for his “macaca” comment that derailed his 2006 Senate re-election bid , the Post...

A new poll shows former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) ahead of Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine by double-digits in Virginia's 2012 Senate race. Allen leads Kaine 45 percent to 32 percent with another 23 percent of voters undecided, according to numbers released Thursday from Roanoke University. Kaine officially jumped into the race for the seat of retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) earlier this week, setting up what could be one of 2012's marquee Senate match-ups. Allen still faces a Republican primary challenge from Tea Party activist Jamie Radtke. The survey, which was taken before Kaine made his candidacy official,...

Donning a plaid shirt and sitting on the same Richmond porch steps where he announced his first bid for city council, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine announced in a video that he is indeed running for Senate in Virginia. The announcement came one day after President Barack Obama, who appointed the former Virginia governor to lead the DNC in 2009, announced his re-election campaign for president. Kaine is scheduled to hold a media availability Wednesday morning in Richmond to discuss the race. “I’m running for the United States Senate because America has big challenges, and I’m convinced Virginia has...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine on Tuesday made official his bid for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia in an online campaign video. “I’m running for United States Senate because America has big challenges and I’m convinced that Virginia has answers to help strengthen our nation,” the former governor said in the video, posted at kaineforva.com.

Republicans now have 47 seats in the Senate, meaning they need to gain only four seats to take control. Chance and a successful Democratic cycle in 2006 means that 23 seats controlled by Democrats will be up in 2012, compared to just 10 for Republicans. ...But it doesn’t seem likely that Republicans could sabotage enough victories to even get close to the number of states Democrats will have to defend.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Freshman Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia announced Wednesday he will retire when his term ends next year, deepening the challenge to his party as it struggles to maintain a majority in the 2012 elections. In an e-mail announcement, Webb said that after much thought and consideration, he had decided to return to the private sector.

In a statement, Mr. Webb said that he had “decided to return to the private sector, where I have spent most of my professional life, and will not seek ...

WASHINGTON – Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia announced plans to retire at the end of his term, deepening the challenge to his party as it struggles to maintain a majority in 2012 elections. In an e-mail announcement, Webb said he would return to the private sector, but offered no additional details of his plans.

Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) has announced that he will not run for reelection in 2012. Webb's decision, long anticipated by many in Virginia politics, will make his seat more difficult to hold for his party. Ex-Sen. George Allen (R), who lost the seat in 2006 to Webb, is running to win it back, and a handful of other GOP candidates are also running. Some Democrats hope ex-Gov. Tim Kaine will decide to run for the seat, but he has given no indication yet that he is interested.

Today, former Senator George Allen is expected to announce his intention to run against the man who beat him six years ago — Jim Webb. Of course it remains uncertain whether Webb will even run again. [snip] ...former Senator Allen is going to have to address some serious problems other than the disastrous campaign waged in 2006 (he may need to talk about that too). Those problems are, put succinctly, his voting record, which is out of step with most of the grassroots activists engaged in Republican primaries today. I’m already getting lots of emails about this and, frankly, most...

Former Sen. George Allen will end weeks of speculation and formally declare his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Virginia on Monday, two Republican advisers tell POLITICO. Allen, who has been making all the moves of a candidate in recent weeks, is expected to blast an e-mail to supporters with a video message before alerting the media. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48027.html#ixzz1BuF8h1kE

Virginia's Webb under 50 percent Virginia Republicans are eagerly eyeing a potential rematch between freshman Democratic Sen. Jim Webb and former GOP Sen. George Allen, who has posted strong numbers in early polls and has the backing of the party establishment in what could be one of the bellwether races of the 2012 cycle. Mr. Webb's upset victory in 2006 was hailed as a key blow by Democrats to turn the once strongly Republican-leaning state into a political battleground. Barack Obama's victory in the state in the 2008 presidential race appeared to solidify the Old Dominion's status as a swing...

Will ex-GOP Sen. George Allen of Virginia challenge the man who unseated him in 2006, Sen. Jim Webb? “I’m not closing any doors,” Allen told IBD. “Right now I’ve founded the American Energy Freedom Center and am advocating positive ideas on energy. “As far as political efforts, I’ll be helping out candidates in Virginia and around the country who share my common-sense conservative principles.